International

Business wire

January 8, 1986

(BU) THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT has predicted a 43.4 percent drop in the nation`s coffee crop this year because of a prolonged drought in the southern farm belt. The government coffee agency estimated a harvest of 16.7 million bags this year, compared with 29.5 million bags in 1985. A bag weighs 132 pounds. Brazil is the world`s No. 1 coffee grower and exporter. It supplies about 30 percent of the world market, and its biggest customer is the United States. The decline in production has forced prices up on world coffee markets.

NATIONAL

(BU) FORD MOTOR CO. AND TOYOTA MOTOR CORP. released their final 1985 car and truck sales figures Tuesday, a day behind the rest of the industry. Their sales brought car and truck deliveries in the United States by domestic and foreign companies to a record 15,700,597, surpassing 1978`s total of 15,419,304. New totals, adjusted for Ford, Toyota and Nissan, put total car sales for the year at 11,038,527. Domestic and foreign truck sales set a record at 4,662,070. Ford sales for the year 2,070,392, up 4.6 percent from 1,979,317 a year earlier. Toyota sold 620,047 for the year.

(BU) NISSAN MOTOR CORP. U.S.A. Tuesday reported record car, truck and total vehicle sales for 1985. Total sales of 830,767 exceeded the previous record of 689,022 set in the previous year. Car sales of 575,166 broke the record of 521,902 set in 1983, while truck sales of 255,601 topped the previous high of 203,724 in 1984. Domestic sales for 1985 included 39,794 Nissan Sentras and 110,344 trucks built at the firm`s Smyrna, Tenn. plant.

(BU) HANSON TRUST PLC of Britain forged ahead Tuesday with its bid to acquire SCM Corp. of New York after a divided federal appeals court voided the ``lock- up option`` SCM used to keep its key assets in friendly hands. In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said SCM`s board of directors did not exercise ``due care`` when it agreed to sell the company`s prized pigment and Durkee frozen foods businesses to a group headed by Merrill Lynch in the event Hanson blocked the Merrill group`s rival bid to take over SCM in a buyout. SCM officials said in a statement that the company would ask the entire 11-judge membership of the 2nd Circuit court to reconsider the ruling. The decision, if it stands, seems likely to dampen the use of lock-up options to thwart hostile takeover bids. In many respects, the ruling followed the reasoning that the Delaware courts used last year in invalidating a lock-up option granted by Revlon to thwart a bid from Pantry Pride of Fort Lauderdale. Pantry Pride completed its takeover of Revlon after the lock-up option was rescinded. Pantry Pride is controlled by MacAndrews & Forbes of New York.

(BU) SEARS, ROEBUCK & CO. of Chicago will introduce its new credit-financial services card nationally months ahead of schedule because test-marketing has been so successful, the company said Tuesday. The Discover Card, which combines retail charge-card features with various financial services, goes on the national market Jan. 23.

(BU) ROBERT RITTEREISER, the new president of E.F. Hutton Group Inc., is expected to be given the additional title of president of the company`s main subsidiary, the E.F. Hutton & Co. brokerage firm, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday. Rittereiser, 47, was hired as president of the parent company in June, a month after E.F. Hutton & Co. pleaded guilty to 2,000 counts of mail and wire fraud in connection with an illegal check overdrafting scheme. Scott Pierce, the current president of E.F. Hutton & Co., might be reassigned to an executive job in the parent company if Rittereiser replaced him.

(BU) THE AVERAGE YIELD on the Treasury`s $6.5 billion auction of 7-year notes on Tuesday was 8.85 percent, down from 9.75 percent at the previous 7- year note auction on Oct. 30 and the lowest since 8.36 percent on Aug. 2, 1978.

(BU) INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER CO. of Chicago on Tuesday changed its name to Navistar International Corp., and company executives said the rechristening marked a rebirth that would enable the company to shed the image of a sleepy giant. North America`s leading maker of heavy- and medium-duty trucks also reported a loss of $364 million in fiscal 1985 on sales of $3.5 billion. The company earned $212 million from on-going operations. In 1984, Harvester had a loss of $55 million on sales of $3.4 billion. The company blamed the fiscal 1985 loss on the sale last January of its agricultural equipment business to Tenneco Inc.`s JI Case Co. subsidiary and said Harvester made a profit for the final three quarters of the fiscal year.